6533b823fe1ef96bd127edf8

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Media multitasking is associated with distractibility and increased prefrontal activity in adolescents and young adults.

Synnöve CarlsonEmma SaloLauri HietajärviMona MoisalaKatariina Salmela-aroKai HakkarainenOili SalonenKimmo AlhoViljami SalmelaKirsti Lonka

subject

MaleBrain activity and meditationAudiologymedia multitaskingBrain mappingDevelopmental psychology0302 clinical medicineCOGNITIVE CONTROLTask Performance and AnalysisAttentionBRAINPLASTICITYEveryday lifeta515prefrontal cortexBrain Mappingmedicine.diagnostic_test05 social sciencesfMRIMultitasking BehaviorNeurologyMultimediaAuditory PerceptionFemalePsychologyRESPONSE-INHIBITIONpsychological phenomena and processesmedicine.medical_specialtyCORTEXAdolescent515 PsychologyCognitive NeurosciencePrefrontal CortexAffect (psychology)behavioral disciplines and activitiesta3112050105 experimental psychology03 medical and health sciencesYoung AdultWORKING-MEMORYmedicineHuman multitaskingHumans0501 psychology and cognitive sciencestarkkaavaisuusWorking memoryAttentional controlPERFORMANCEFRONTAL LESIONSMedia multitaskingLIFEReading516 Educational sciencesSUSTAINED ATTENTIONNerve NetFunctional magnetic resonance imaging030217 neurology & neurosurgery

description

The current generation of young people indulges in more media multitasking behavior (e.g., instant messaging while watching videos) in their everyday lives than older generations. Concerns have been raised about how this might affect their attentional functioning, as previous studies have indicated that extensive mediamultitasking in everyday life may be associated with decreased attentional control. In the current study, 149 adolescents and young adults (aged 13-24 years) performed speech-listening and reading tasks that required maintaining attention in the presence of distractor stimuli in the othermodality or dividing attention between two concurrent tasks. Brain activity during task performance was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We studied the relationship between self-reported daily media multitasking (MMT), task performance and brain activity during task performance. The results showed that in the presence of distractor stimuli, a higher MMT score was associated with worse performance and increased brain activity in right prefrontal regions. The level of performance during divided attention did not depend on MMT. This suggests that daily media multitasking is associated with behavioral distractibility and increased recruitment of brain areas involved in attentional and inhibitory control, and that media multitasking in everyday life does not translate to performance benefits in multitasking in laboratory settings. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Peer reviewed

yearjournalcountryeditionlanguage
2016-07-01NeuroImage
10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.04.011https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27063068